Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 1258

Tonight's special guest is Louise Cutshaw from Greeneville, Tennessee, Executive VP, volunteer and advocate at Incest Survivors United Voices Of America. Louise was abused all through her youth, and it started at the hands of her mother from the day she was born. "She is a narcissist," says Louise. "I was beaten, controlled, tortured, humiliated. By the time I was 4 I was lice ridden, covered in boils, starved. I could not talk properly. I had a huge stutter and a nervous cough." And things were going to become worse. "From the age of 4, till 18 years of age, my abuse continued at the hands of my mother and the man she married, the STEP-FATHER." He also included his depraved friends. The sexual abuse only stopped because he died. "I am a survivor who told, at the ages of 7, 9 and 12," Louise says. She told her mother, but that did no good as she was a silent bystander, and was well aware of the abuse. In fact, she reports, "My mother would beat and torture me daily. Several attempts were made at bath time to end my life with drowning me. She verbally abused me, cut all my hair off, poured bleach down my throat, and destroyed any identity I had." In her childhood and early adult life Louise did a lot of self harming, and there were several suicide attempts. "Can abuse be overcome?" she asks. "HELL YES.. We have a fight inside of us. We survived the most heinous crimes committed against us. Physically, mentally, sexually." And she concludes, "I stand no longer ashamed, no longer hidden, no longer silent."Originally from Great Britain, Louise is now a US resident. "I have the honor of being an advocate for Incest Survivors United Voices of America."